Fujitsu announces permanent work-from-home plan • Hacker News Board

Re: Fujitsu announces permanent work-from-home plan

#71

Post by fennecfoxen » Mon, Jul 06, 2020, 2:06 PM UTC

xen2xen1 wrote: post #65

alistairSH wrote: post #26

Can Japanese residents comment on how this works WRT office space in the home? Do people typically have space in their homes to have a proper home office setup? My wife and I are both WFH right now, and we had to buy a second desk and chair and repurpose what was previously our 2nd bedroom. The 3rd bedroom has always been a home office. If we lived in a downtown apartment, I'm not sure what we'd do, as we're both in…

I'm intensely curious about how this will affect larger cities like Tokyo if the trend stays. Isn't / wasn't the real estate prices in Tokyo super important for the Japanese economy? If workers could suddenly move out to the burbs how would that affect places like Tokyo?

High real estate prices don't help most economies. Neither do high oil prices, high energy prices, high raw-materials prices, high food prices, or other high prices.

Exceptions apply if your local economy is in that sector specifically, but this prosperity only comes at the expense of output everywhere else.

In the ultimate economy, everything is free and you can have as much as you want.

Re: Fujitsu announces permanent work-from-home plan

#72

Post by ghaff » Mon, Jul 06, 2020, 2:08 PM UTC

jon-wood wrote: post #52

C1sc0cat wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sucks for the worker who now has to bear the cost of providing office space and internet connections and your local network. Also longer term a lot of housing stock will become les desirable and new residential housing will become bigger and more expensive. Oh and H&S inspections will now have to be included

For most people I suspect they come out on top even with the extra expense of needing a decent internet connection and some office space. Commuting (particularly into London, which is what I'm most familiar with) is expensive - I'm a 1.5 hour train ride out from London, and an annual season ticket costs £6,000-£7,000 per year, depending on the route and whether I want a travelcard for London as well.

There's a subset of people who can normally walk or bike to their office and are now faced with either moving into a larger apartment or renting a co-working space--which I don't expect to be typically reimbursed. But most people commuting in from or around the suburbs can probably make the space at home work and are saving double-digit dollars per day.

Re: Fujitsu announces permanent work-from-home plan

#73

Post by nicoburns » Mon, Jul 06, 2020, 2:16 PM UTC

caymanjim wrote: post #60

matchbok wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the same spot. Home ownership is so out of reach for the vast majority of the people my age. Even with good salaries and savings! Most people my age who have purchased a home got significant help from their parents.

It's really not out of reach unless you insist on living in a major metropolis. A young couple earning under $100k combined can afford a comfortable 3-bedroom home in all 50 states, just not in a large city. Mortgage rates are near all-time lows and the 20% "required downpayment" has been a myth since before you were born. You don't even need great credit to buy a home with a mortgage under $1500/mo all-in with taxes…

$100k? A quick google shows me that median household income in the US is closer to $60k. And that's the median, so half of households will be lower than that.

Re: Fujitsu announces permanent work-from-home plan

#74

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Jul 06, 2020, 2:17 PM UTC

achow wrote: post #68

dtech wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Even"? softare dev is one of the easiests things to do remotely

"Even" because the comment is about software service companies (as opposed to software product ones). In service companies keeping or accounting time (so that clients can be billed) is a thing. When working from home, keeping account of time spent may be a challenge. As long as one is in office, even though they may not be clacking away on a keyboard (but goofing away) they can be billed without any guilt and if the…

[deleted]

Re: Fujitsu announces permanent work-from-home plan

#75

Post by ghaff » Mon, Jul 06, 2020, 2:18 PM UTC

onetimemanytime wrote: post #7

reustle wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here in Tokyo, I actually feel the opposite. WeWorks are quite busy again, but then again we didn't get hit as hard as the west. If I were a company with 100 employees, I'd get 50~ hotdesk spaces at my local coworking space chain and let employees come in up to 3 days a week whenever they feel like it.

In the sense its cheaper to outsource than having your own permanent offices? That's possible but major companies would probably have them meet/come at existing offices on alternate days.

Commercial leases also tend to be fairly long-term. So a lot of companies are in the situation where they want to use their existing space in a way that's appropriate for the current situation. Which may be different from what they'd do if they were starting from a clean slate.

Re: Fujitsu announces permanent work-from-home plan

#76

Post by peruvian » Mon, Jul 06, 2020, 2:20 PM UTC

tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: post #28

CubsFan1060 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also wonder the impact it'll have on retail and lunch places. A lot of small restaurants popped up around places with a lot of office workers. If those office workers are all WFH now, the previously desirable restaurant locations will become semi-worthless. On top of that, my guess is that WFH people will go out for lunch less often, so those restaurants won't just relocate to more residential areas, they (and thei…

OTOH, isn't it pretty customary for any large office (let's say 1k+) to have a cafeteria, with presumably most employees eating there? Some of these will not want to cook lunch in the middle of work, and at least order takeout instead.

It's not as common as you might think nor is it always free or affordable.

In NYC, the Sweetgreen/Dig Inn/etc. type places in areas with offices are packed from 12pm to 3pm every weekday. It's a huge market for them.

Re: Fujitsu announces permanent work-from-home plan

#77

Post by ghaff » Mon, Jul 06, 2020, 2:25 PM UTC

fzzzy wrote: post #45

tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OTOH, isn't it pretty customary for any large office (let's say 1k+) to have a cafeteria, with presumably most employees eating there? Some of these will not want to cook lunch in the middle of work, and at least order takeout instead.

Yes, this is quite likely, but this is a titanic shift in the real estate market. Previously, you wanted a flashy storefront to attract customers so you put your kitchen in a fancy area. Now, you just need a kitchen on a back alley where delivery drivers can easily pull in to pick up their orders. I actually think it might cause a more efficient use of space overall. Lots of strip malls and even regular malls around…

>Lots of strip malls and even regular malls around the country are going to be converted into housing

Unlikely. Most "dead malls" are in suburban and rural locations, often depressed. Maybe there will be some housing development in the acreage but they're mostly in areas where land is relatively plentiful and cheap. Dying malls aren't going to open up prime real estate because retail in prime real estate is mostly still doing pretty well.

Re: Fujitsu announces permanent work-from-home plan

#78

Post by artsyca » Mon, Jul 06, 2020, 2:25 PM UTC

snarfy wrote: post #66

Any Japanese care to chime in on how WFH is accepted culturally? When I worked for a Japanese tech company I was surprised by how old school they were. Landlines, business cards, reams of paper, week long meetings about policies, and this was a software company. WFH was forbidden unless it was an emergency.

I live in Japan and at first everyone was against it, now everyone is for it and a whole new industry is cropping up. HP is early to the market with their solutions and Fujitsu must also be sensing the opportunity.

The reason the tides are changing is that there is a social consciousness aspect to it now whereas before it would've been viewed differently.

Re: Fujitsu announces permanent work-from-home plan

#79

Post by erfgh » Mon, Jul 06, 2020, 2:27 PM UTC

jon-wood wrote: post #46

saos wrote: post #15

Thats really good. I wonder how UK companies will respond.

Sample size of one, but my employer have significantly shifted their view of remote work from being something that's only really accepted in extreme circumstances (or in some cases such as my own, grandfathered in from the early days). All our offices are currently closed with everyone working remotely, and have been since late February, but even once they reopen its already been stated that they expect the new norma…

You said it, "more or less".

Re: Fujitsu announces permanent work-from-home plan

#80

Post by ejvincent » Mon, Jul 06, 2020, 2:34 PM UTC

flattone wrote: post #62

cactus2093 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean FWIW I’m American and your explanation sounds very foreign to me. I’m a millennial though, so owning a house at all is quite obstacle. Scrounging up a down payment when even a 2 bedroom apartment is $1-$1.5 million is not the easiest task. Renting an extra 2 bedrooms to have lying around in case we suddenly need 2 offices would also cost an extra couple thousand dollars a month. My wife and I are both working…

You can take 600k 30 minutes out of seattle and love your 2800sqft modern home (approx/just now starting to look for myself) Update: (Not modern but im a fan anyway. https://www.redfin.com/WA/Bothell/15601-Cascadian-Way-98012/...

600k is too low for any home in the area that isn’t in bad shape at that size (and your example shows this). Also, that 30min can become 1h+ with traffic, with almost no public transit alternatives.